


Loving Someone

by hanleiasolo



Series: this must be my dream [4]
Category: Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Some Swearing, Some fighting, dialogue heavy but i mean, everything is tense and awful but it's fine!, meeting the mom!, there's a small light at the end of the tunnel!, whatcha gonna do
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 20:07:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7654894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanleiasolo/pseuds/hanleiasolo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maybe you can never really move on from someone who has hurt you so deeply. Maybe that’s a wound that stays with you forever. Maybe that’s what she was protecting me from. But maybe I don’t need protecting. Not from this. Not from Hades.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Loving Someone

**Author's Note:**

> Thank u for tuning into another adventure! Also thanks for giving my other stories some tremendous loving! I appreciate you all so much! Follow me on tumblr @falloutswift and enjoy this angst-filled piece!

Hades sat uncomfortably at the kitchen table directly in front of my mother and  _ fuck _ I knew this was a bad idea. I shouldn’t have told her I had a boyfriend. I shouldn’t have told her it was Hades. I should have done what I do best and not have told her anything. 

She, of course, freaked out when I told her. She lectured me on how wrong it was to be with a college man older than I was, despite there only being a one-year age difference. She asked if I knew about every single thing that was wrong with him, like how he shoplifted one time when he was twelve or how he had drank alcohol before the age of twenty-one. (I couldn’t tell her we all had drank before twenty-one or how I shoplifted some dying plants in the Walmart flower shed the other night.) She didn’t like him because he was different and weird. “Too bad,” I told her last night. I then proceeded to tell her I invited him to dinner, which was currently happening now and it was going very poorly. 

She purposely seated us on opposite sides of the table so I couldn’t touch him or hold his hand or whisper dumb things into his ear. She sat me next to herself so she could keep an eye on me and, more importantly, on him. Them being across from each other didn’t stop him from making eyes at me or me smiling at him. 

“So, Hades,” my mother began and I cringed at the sound of her voice. “You’re in college, right?” Hades nodded his head, unsure of where this conversation was heading. “What are you majoring in?” 

“English,” he responded cooly. My mother tried to hide the shock that would be on her face. She was expecting something... _ not _ that. 

“Oh,” she said. “How nice.” 

“I’m hoping to work up to be a professor,” he said. My mother nodded her head, faking interest. She wasn’t interested in the good parts. She was interested in the bad parts of him; the things that would drive me away from him. Any dirt she could get on her hands to destroy our relationship was what she was interested. 

“He also works in the library on his campus,” I piped in and my mother glared at me.  “Well, is that so?” she asked. She quickly fixed herself to look pleasant again. He noticed and I noticed and he thought it was funny and I was embarrassed. 

“Oh, yeah - it’s not a big deal. It’s just something that helps with the bills and college and yeah,” Hades brushed it off. 

“Your parents aren’t paying for anything?” she blurted out. 

“Mom!” I exclaimed, scowling at her. 

“No, they aren’t. It was my decision,” Hades said, acting like nothing had just happened. He must get that question too many times to care, being from rich family and all. I still felt awful at how my mother acted but it was nice that Hades was downplaying what happened. At least he was being reasonable. 

My mother looked like she wanted to explode by now. I didn’t blame her. I, too, would rather explode than be here right now. “That’s very courageous of you to do. I know how hard being on your own can be,” she commented. 

“Thank you,” he said. I couldn’t tell if she was acting fake or not, and that worried me.

“Persephone, help me clear the table.” She abruptly stood up and started grabbing plates and cutlery in front of her. She stormed out of the dining area and into the kitchen. I sighed and followed suit, going much slower than she had. My hands were shaking as I started to grab the remaining plates and I didn’t want to be upset over this but I was. 

Once she was out of sight, Hades rose to help me. “God, fuck, I’m sorry about her. I’m sorry I thought this would be a good fucking idea,” I said. 

“Don’t apologize. She’s just being...your mom. Demeter was never one to half ass anything, let alone anything involving you.” Hades grinned and handed me his plate to stack. He was right and I hated that he was right and that my mother was like this. “If it counts, I still think this was a good idea.”

“How do you figure?” I asked him. 

“Well, because -”

“ _ Persephone! _ ” My mother yelled from the kitchen and I tensed. 

“Just believe that it is,” he murmured and leaned over the table to give me a quick peck on the lips before I left. 

I quickly made my way into the kitchen, dropping the remaining plates into the sink. She stood at the sink, taking her sweet-ass time washing the dishes. 

“I don’t like that boy, Persephone,” she scolded. My face contorted into a pout, even though she couldn’t see me. 

“Why? He’s been nothing but lovely to you and you  _ know  _ it, damn it.” 

“That doesn’t matter and don’t you  _ dare _ use that language with me,” she snipped back.

“What  _ does _ matter then? What’s your problem with him? Is it because he’s still has a ‘bad boy’ persona about him? Or that he’s been so polite this whole night? Or that he treats me well?”

“We’ll discuss it later, Persephone.”

“I want to know, mother. What is it about him that makes you so damn mad?” 

“Don’t push this. I just don’t like him.”

“I love him,” I whispered. I tried to shout but all I could muster up was a pathetic little whisper. 

She turned the water off and dried her hands before turning to face me. I hadn’t noticed that I had started crying until I felt the water streaming down my cheek. “He’s so tremendously important to me. He was important enough for me to introduce him to you. You not liking him has just ruined it. You always do that, you know. Whenever I’m ecstatic about something, you bring me down. All you want me to do is stay with you for the rest of my life and rot away in that stupid little flower shop of yours.”

Demeter went to argue, but no words came out. She knew that I wasn’t wrong. That’s exactly what my mother wanted me to do for the rest of my life. Just because she was alone did not mean that I had to be alone. I wouldn’t let her guilt me into that mindset. 

“I’m sorry I don’t like him, Persephone. I just don’t think he’s the kind of boy you should be with.”

“And what does that description entail?”

She stayed silent, her gaze hard on me. I walked out. She didn’t have anything left to say and hell if I was going to stay in that awful silence with her. 

My mother was forever the pessimist. She was so negative over anything and everything I wanted to do that was outside of her comfort zone. All she wanted me to do was stay with her forever and ever in her lonely life in that flower shop for the rest of my life. Even as a little girl, I could never go out and explore the gardens near my house without her glued to me. I thought it would all change once I was older, but I guess old habits die hard. 

I leaned against the wall in the hallway between the kitchen and the dining room, trying to calm myself down. I furiously wiped at my eyes and took a deep breath. This was not the way this dinner was supposed to go. I thought that if I tried to show that I really cared about Hades, she would loosen up. She would accept him. She would be able to see what I could see in him.

I tried to rationalize it a bit in my head. I know she was left by the man who knocked her up with me - my  _ father _ , if I ever were to know him - and that really impacted her, but it’s been so many years since then. I figured she would be over it by now. Move on. Maybe you can never really move on from someone who has hurt you so deeply. Maybe that’s a wound that stays with you forever. Maybe that’s what she was protecting me from. But maybe I don’t need protecting. Not from this. Not from Hades. 

After I calmed down, I walked back into the dining room where I found Hades sitting patiently, scrolling through his phone. He looked up when he heard me walk in. “Is everything alright?” he asked. 

“Not at all, but I didn’t expect anything less to come from tonight. It was a bad idea,” I sighed. He shook his head at me. 

“It wasn’t a bad idea. This needed to happen so that things can grow and get better.”

“You’re very insightful,” I teased, but I thought about his words seriously. “Maybe you’re right, though. Maybe things will start looking up. She just has to realize what it all means.” 

My mother just had to realize that I wasn’t a child anymore, and that I could handle myself. I didn’t need to be protected from running to Hades with open arms. Things would happen the way they were meant to happen. I did believe Hades when he said this was a good idea, despite that it went against my better judgement. If it were up to me, I would have hidden him away from everyone. But this was the next step for us, for our relationship. Being with Hades was the only thing that felt right. 

“I’ll walk you out,” I mumbled as he stood up. “Again, I’m really sorry about her behavior. But it  _ was _ a good idea. This was good for us.” 

“Of course it was. It means we get to continue to grow as a couple.” I beamed at his words. He slipped his hand inside of mine as I led him to the door. Only Hades could make a happy ending out of this awful excuse of a dinner, and for that, I was eternally grateful. 


End file.
